Like I said in my “7th Month: Into the Final Homestretch…” blog, things up until that point were pretty smooth sailing. But I swear to God, as soon as I hit 7 months, everything went down hill, and fast.
Let’s go over how sarcastically awesome the past few weeks have been:
1. Boobs: These things are starting to get ridiculous. I am now growing out of my sports bra. They not only are killing my upper back, but they are now starting to fill up with colostrum (the stuff that comes in before milk) so they are super sore. Oh and speaking of colostrum, I am now sexily leaking.
“That must’ve sucked when YOU figured that out, Jamie”, you might be saying.
But oh no. It wasn’t me who discovered it.
It was Mike.
We were cutting the dog’s hair and I had been leaning on the counter. I stood up to hold the dog and Mike says, “Ummm you’re lactating.” I look down and there are two perfectly round wet spots on my shirt. On my LIGHT YELLOW shirt. I say, “Oh no. It’s just water”, since I had been leaning on the bathroom counter (although secretly, I was praying it was water to save me the embarrassment). I went in the other room and checked things out, and it HAD been coming from me. Great. Yes, it was Mike and not some stranger in public, but I think it was more embarrassing for me for him to see it.
My friends who I see every once in awhile always comment on how huge they are getting. Even friends and family that see me almost every day say something. I don’t blame them either. They’re huge. And when I tell them that I’m actually in a sports bra and not a regular one, they freak out even more about how huge they are. Did they really expect me to wear a regular bra when they are already up to my chin?
2. Back (and Front) Pain: This is the worst. The front hurts because everything is stretching out/how she is positioned, and the back hurts because she is knudged right into my sciatic nerve. So not only my back hurts, but it shoots down my entire right leg. It gets so bad, that by mid-morning, I literally can barely walk. And you can forget about nights. I’m holding onto everything from the edge of the bed to countertops just to weeble wobble around the house. I actually stayed home from work one day because I couldn’t move.
The mornings are great though because I’ve been laying down all night. But as soon as I start the process of actually moving around, it all goes to heck.
The front pain isn’t as bad, but it progresses throughout the day like my back does. The pressure she causes on my hoo-ha is almost unbearable. I feel like she’s trying to push her way out, but can’t get through. My doctor gave me this belt thing that I’m supposed to wear to help with that. I waited forever for it, and later found out that it had been sitting in our front door for almost a week (we go through the back door to get in the house). I went into the bedroom and tried this thing on. When Sarah first told me about it, I thought it was going to be like Spanx, where I put it on like underwear and it just holds everything up, but no.
First you have to put this belt thing on that velcros around your waist. Then you put this thing that looks like an ace bandage around your back that velcros to the initial belt you put on. THEN you put a band on that velcros to the back strap that goes across the top of your belly. I got all this on, and thought for a split second (literally) that this thing might actually work. And then it happened.
The back strap flipped over because no matter how straight you stand, the curve of your back causes it to flip in half. Because of this, the Velcro rubs against your skin. And since the Velcro is now on your skin and not on the strap that goes across your belly, the strap then came undone and hit me in the face. Officially done with this torture device.
Here is what it looks like:
See how she's cheating and holding the back part up? That's because if she doesn't, it will flip over and she will get smacked in the face!
I’ve tried it 3 more times after this fiasco, and I last maybe 5 minutes in it. The Velcro on my skin causes a horrible itch, and it just squeezes me way too tight.
I’ve talked to both Sarah and ManBearPig about this, and basically all they say is that it just gets worse from here. All I can do is just enjoy it now, since this is the best of it.
3. Peeing: I expected this to get worse. With the baby growing and constantly kicking my bladder, plus drinking a gallon of water a day, I’m not surprised that I go to the bathroom as much as I do.
But one day, I went 16 times. IN ONE DAY! I go back and forth so much at work, I basically count it as my walk for the day since the bathroom is all the way down the hall. It’s guaranteed that if I have been sitting down for more than 5 minutes, when I stand up, I automatically have to go pee. I now know my pee schedule.
4. Feeling “Stuffed”: With how big the baby is getting, I almost constantly feel like I’m really full. Don’t get me wrong…I get hungry. But when I do eat, even if I’m starving, I can only eat a little bit because my stomach is so small now. I’m constantly taking deep breaths and blowing them out like I’m walking out of a 3 hour visit to Golden Corral. It’s just really uncomfortable.
Speaking of uncomfortable…
5. Baby Spreading Out: She spreads out as much as she possibly can. She digs her feet into my side and her head into my ribs. It’s too the point that I’m breathless even when I’m just sitting.
The cool thing about this is that when she pushes really hard, we can feel the outline of her feet and exactly where her head is. I just wish it didn’t hurt so bad.
7. Heartburn/Nausea: This has only recently gotten bad. For a few nights now, I have been feeling nauseas as I lay down in bed. It usually passes long enough so I can fall asleep. But the other night, I woke up at around 2am and threw up. I talked to my doctor about it, and they said that it's caused by heartburn, which I thought was a little odd, but after they explained it, it made sense. They still want me to take OTC Prevacid for it, but I'm fine with my Tums.
6. Being Gross: This is probably my biggest complaint about pregnancy. I feel unbelievably gross. I’m as big as a house. I know being pregnant, you’re supposed to gain weight, but it’s not like I started off this process small, so it’s just been straight down hill. I try to look sexy or at least nice, but then I get out of the shower or catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror, and my confidence is just deflated. I can’t wait until I can start working out. Not just for my sake, or my child’s sake, but for Mike’s sake. I feel dumb for this, but I actually feel bad for him that he is with someone that is so huge. I just want to be pretty again. He’s never said anything, and I really doubt he ever would. And maybe it’s all in my head. But I’m really looking forward to being able to exercise and get to the size that I should be.
That’s it for about now, although that seems like a lot. I’m just grumpy today. But I feel better now that I vented. I know when she’s here, I’ll miss being pregnant, but definitely not the things I listed. No no no.
